So, I do a lot of posts with him. He is my main subject of torture writing, and he is rather beautiful, I think.

1. What’s His Favorite Place He’s Ever Visited?

I had to think a little on this one, but I decided that when Elliot was young, one of his foster parents took him on an art stroll. I actually got the idea from YouTube (how's that for writing research 😉): one of the vloggers I watch took their toddlers on this art walk where there were all these paintings by local artists displayed throughout their town. I thought it was cool and it matched my boy, so now it’s one of Elliot’s first memories and a huge part of why he’s so into art. (Also, if you know of any art or art aesthetics or anything like that on Pinterest, please comment them! His board needs love).

2.What’s One Mistake He’s Made That He’s Learned From?

Elliot is bad at learning from his mistakes. Like, very bad. He tends to see life as “This is the way things are and there is nothing I can do to change them.” So it takes a huge shift in perspective for him to even realize that he can learn from a mistake, and then to actually apply that learning is another difficult step entirely. Not that I think he’s never learned from a mistake, but he would be hard-pressed to pinpoint an answer because of the way that he thinks and understands the world.

3.What Was Their Favorite Subject In School? Or Their Favorite Thing To Learn About?

*distant sobbing at the very mention of school*

As far as favorite thing to learn in general, probably drawing techniques and things of that nature, most of which he picks up just from observation.

4.What’s Their Favorite Flower/Growing Thing?

Another thing that I had to think about (thanks so much Cait and Sky for these thought-provoking questions!) and it took quite a bit of rambling for me to come up with this answer, but I eventually determined that Elliot’s favorite growing thing is trees. Elliot really likes drawing landscapes, particularly ones that involve lonely roads and backdrops of forests and mountains. He enjoys the intricacy of making each tree different but the same; it’s a very careful and involved activity that he can focus on and kind of block everything else out while he does. Plus, the lonely road feel reminds himself of him.

5.Have They Ever Made Someone Cry? What Happened?

Enh... Yes. Probably more than once. And it’s kind of spoilers, but basically, Elliot was a difficult child, I’ll put it that way. And that caused some people to burst into tears. On occasion. More than once. Yeah.

6.Would You Consider Them To Be A Reliable Or Unreliable Narrator?

Definitely unreliable, but I also think that all 1st person narrators are unreliable to a certain extent. Because you only see the story from their POV and they’re human, therefore their point-of-view is very, very skewed to their thought patterns and beliefs and understanding of the world (which I intentionally utilized even more in Low Expectations). So I would say that, yes, Elliot is very unreliable, probably more so than most narrators, but only a little more than most humans.

7.What Do They Dream About At Night?

Probably pretty normal, random stuff. His dreams never came up in the book, but if I were to try to be funny/answer this question based off of what he thinks about during the day, his dreams would involve art, Bryce, Lela, and his foster family. Also, probably algebra. So it would be something along the lines of trying to draw a masterpiece, which suddenly morphs into algebraic equations with Bryce and Lela’s voices taunting him for all eternity. I’m not sure where the Blanchards fit into that though. Maybe they save him from it at the end.

Idk.

8.They’ve Gone Out For A “Special Meal.” What Would They Eat?

Elliot’s not real picky; he just loves good food in general. But... if nothing else, milkshakes would definitely be involved. Milkshakes kind of have a special meaning throughout this story, so if it was a special event, milkshakes would have to be there. (I have before mentioned my love of ice cream, so obviously, this had to be tied in, lol 😉 )

9.What’s At Least One Thing They Want To Do Before They Die?

Ugh, I toiledwith this question. Not that it’s a bad one, but that Elliot made it so stinking hard to answer. The thing is Elliot’s problems are so immediate, I don’t think he’s even considered doing anything with his life. He’s a very “one day at a time” type of person because that’s all he can mentally and emotionally handle. There was actually a moment I was editing yesterday where he realizes that there aren’t many things he actually enjoys. There are things he doesn't enjoys and actively avoids but there isn't a whole lot that he'll fight for. And as he makes that realization, a chance arises for him to fight and he does so in his own way, but that's all very spoilery. ;)

Point is, he doesn’t really see life as something he can fight for or change. And so he doesn't much try until someone shows him another way.

That didn’t really answer the question, did it? *sigh* I suppose it’s because he hasn’t really given one to me.

10.Do They Have Any Distinguishing Or Unique Talents?

Yes! As I’ve mentioned probably too many times, Elliot is an artist. His favorite medium is pencils because that’s what he has easiest access to, but I can also see him doing digital art and painting if he were given the chance.

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So, there’s my Beautiful Person for the month! Did you do the linkup? Comment yours below! I’d love to visit. 😊

Honestly, development for me comes from writing and rewriting and doing both again, lol. There's no set timeline for it; I've been writing Elliot's story off and on for about 5 1/2 years now, so we know each other pretty well. ;) Tags like this and other questionnaires can also be helpful from time to time (I actually was able to fix a problem scene with question 4!). So yeah, there's no real timeline for it, but as for advice, I'd say mostly write. Secondly, linkups and questionnaires like this can also be helpful. :)

Aw he sounds like a really interesting character! If you're looking for an artsy district aesthetic look up pictures of the Ponce City Market in Atlanta Georgia. It's one of the city's art districts and has paintings out for display like you described.

I also did Beautiful People this month. ^ ^ http://storitorigrace.blogspot.com/2017/06/beautiful-people-25-june-edition.html

A one-day-at-a-time kind of person is perfect. Living in the moment will make him unpredictable and interesting to some. To others he might be a pain because they want to plan ahead. Great opportunities for character development all around.

Hiya!

Alexandria, better known as Alex or Alexa, is a strange Christian-fangirl-YA-writer medley tucked away in an undisclosed location in Virginia. She loves creating worlds out of keystrokes, discovering adorable ships (platonic or romantic), and becoming besties with clever characters who wow her with smarts and sass.